


My Next Life as a Hostess: All Routes Lead to Debt!

by isobe



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types, 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… - 山口悟 | My Next Life as a Villainess - Yamaguchi Satoru (Light Novels), 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… | My Next Life as a Villainess (Anime)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:14:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24792922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isobe/pseuds/isobe
Summary: While searching for a cafeteria, Bakarina Claes stumbles upon an unused music room which turns out to be the club room for the Hamefura Host Club — a group of idle rich students, possessing exceptional good-looks, who entertain both male and female clients alike.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	My Next Life as a Hostess: All Routes Lead to Debt!

Hungry, Katarina Claes paced along the far-too-wide, marble hallway. Though there were supposedly five cafeterias in the prestigious academy, she somehow could not find a single one of them. It was rather a shame, as she had saved up all her pocket money for this day just to finally be able to taste, if only a sliver of, some rich people food — better than any Michelin five-star restaurant, the academy brochure had boasted!

Being a middle-class student, Katarina not only had never ate food on-campus but was also a rarity at the school; she had only gotten the placement offer due to her grandma’s faithful services in agricultural advisory for the institution, yet most people assumed that she had, in fact, gotten a scholarship. That assumption set precedence for further assumptions, such as the girl being a one-in-a-billion prodigy or a monster at studying, or even some crime syndicate boss’ son. The rumours had spiralled out of control, really. When it came to light that she was, in actuality, just a gluttonous idiot who was always out of funds due to spending too much money on otome games, other students decidedly left her alone; however, some still suspected that she was, like a “dark horse”, just feigning her denseness. Of course, she was oblivious to all of this.

Nevertheless, she was aware of the fact that most people thought that she was male. This may have been due to her very short hair, cut over the holidays, or her reckless way of behaviour. It did not bother Katarina too much, for it made no difference, and instead of correcting her pronouns she believed that there were far more important things to be concerned of such as...

...if the lunch break were to go on like so, the girl was sure to collapse of starvation! She should have at least brought some food from home if she had known that sometimes, even with cash at hand, one could not buy one’s desires at the most desperate hour. The far-too-high ceiling above her appeared to be spinning dizzily, and the red carpet under her tattered shoes looked teasingly like the shade of barbecued hotdogs. She was going to join her loving mother in Heaven soon. (Her mother was, just to clarify, not dead.)

“Oh, poor I... poor me!”

Then all of a sudden, the delirious Katarina, at that very moment, smelt of a whiff of sweetness — an olfactory delight — from a nearby classroom: the scent of tea, the redolence of sugar, the softness of vanilla cakes... she trusted her nose! There was confectionery on the food radar! Pelting down the corridor in excitement, Katarina’s senses led her to none other than the Third Music Room. Without looking at the sign, she swung the door open with a flourish, already drooling at her mouth.

However, what met her eyes was not some grandiose tea room, but a flash of blinding light. She suddenly wished she hadn’t re-enacted the soapy mother-daughter reunion in her head.

“Welcome to Hamefura High School Host Club!”

A flurry of rose petals flew before her, then floated away to reveal a group of spectacularly good-looking people. Though, behind them, there were indeed assemblies of students around tables of dainty confectionery, much to Katarina’s fancy in joining them.

“H-Host club?” she stuttered, refocusing and stumbling backwards against the door.

“Oh, it’s a guy,” said the boy with curling honey-coloured hair.

The dark-haired one with a devilish charm — who looked exactly like how Katarina would have imagined the Alluring Count from a romance novel she had been reading — pushed up his glasses. “Keith, you are in the same class as this guest, right?”

“Yeah, but... he doesn’t go along with others much, so I don’t really know him well,” said Keith with aloofness.

A light bulb lit up. The Alluring Count smiled, causing Katarina’s face to flush red. “That is quite rude, actually.” He turned to the girl. “Welcome to the Hamefura Host Club, special student.”

As far as Katarina was concerned, she was certain this was not an ordinary cafeteria anymore. Or why would a fictional character be here?! She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was not having hunger illusions. There had be some kind of mistake. Awkwardly, she turned to face the door. A magical meeting with the Alluring Count in a pink-wallpapered room (among comically dramatic rose petals)... she must be in a dream.

“What? So he’s that exceptional special student, Katarina Claes?”

Katarina turned back around and saw a blonde, prince-like boy with a hand to his chin. He gazed at her curiously, as if she were the most intriguing thing he had ever seen.

“How do you know my name?”

“Well, the way this school works makes it difficult for commoners to get in,” said a chestnut-coloured hair girl. “They say that it’s pretty hard to be accepted as a special student unless you’re a studious bookworm.”

Ah, of course it was natural for an ojou-sama to refer to Katarina as a commoner, but she thought that something else was incorrect.

“Yeah... I’m not a special student though-”

“Yes,” sang the blonde prince, putting an arm around her shoulder — he must secretly be an ninja if he managed to sneak so close without the other person realising. “In other words, you are a hero, Claes-kun. Even if you are the number one student in your class, you are the poorest student in the whole school!”

The patronising tone of his voice irked Katarina. She shuffled away, but the prince stuck to her like glue.

“Others might marginalise you as a lowly civilian...” he said, waving his hands theatrically.

“No, I’m not as bad as you make me sound...”

“Come on, why not? All hail poverty!” The blonde had a mysterious sparkle about his aura as he pulled Katarina towards him by the shoulder. “Welcome to our elegant world, pauper!”

And then, just like Katarina had expected, red roses bloomed behind his glittering profile. What was this, a shōjo manga?! She had had enough; all the cakes in the academy could not make up for this eccentricity. As she laid her hand on the door handle to leave, another pat landed on her back, this time harder than before. If it were that annoying prince again...

In fact, it was the tall boy with silver hair and multiple earrings. He looked at her seriously. “Hey, onii-chan, are you really a hero?”

What?! The solemn expression on his face showed that he was not making fun of her or trying to be menacing, but his low voice was especially jarring with the cutesy honourific.

“It’s called a special student, not a hero, plus I already tried to explain that I’m not- who the Hell are you calling onii-chan?!”

At this point, Katarina was panting wearily from the stress. Rich people were awfully strange.

“Excuse him, if you will. Alan is just trying to adjust to his assigned sweet-little-brother role,” explained the Alluring Count.

Alan scowled. “It was Geordo who forced me to do it!”

“But you’re my little brother, are you not?”

“By merely five minutes!”

“Anyway, I never expected the famous bookworm to be interested in host services,” said Geordo, striking yet another dramatic pose. With the sorts of him, it was safe to expect roses to bloom spontaneously, whenever. “So, Claes-kun, do you like girls... or boys? What type do you fancy? We have Sienna, the elegant ojou-sama type; Alan, the gap moe, tsundere little brother type; Nicol, the taciturn but charming gentleman; Maria, the sweet and domestic wife; Keith, the flirtatious and charismatic playboy... or would you like our manager, Mary Hunt? She’s quite haughty, though. Actually, if you swing that way, we can even host sibling play with Nicol and Sophia.”

Dazed, Katarina took a step back. “N-no! I was just looking for the academy cafeteria!”

“Or...” Swiftly, Geordo drew in the distance, holding her chin with gentle and slender fingers. They were so close that the girl could feel his hot breath on her face. “...how about you try me? Wanna go?"

Sweet baby Jesus!

Flustered, Katarina tripped backwards, unaware of the disaster that was about to occur. “I-I’m just an innocent passerby... I d-don’t know anything, honestly-” She hit her arm on something hard, then became alarmingly certain that something had been knocked over. Doom dropped to the abyss of her heart. By the time she turned around, a crash had thundered through her ears and before her eyes was the terrifying sight of a shattered vase laying on the carpeted floor.

_OH! MY! GOD!_

Keith appeared behind her, sardonically deadpanned. “Ahh, the flower vase that was the target of our in-school auction. That’s not good.”

“And we thought we could have reaped up to eight million with this,” added Mary, equally nonchalant.

_EIGHT?! MILLION?!_

Katarina’s mouth was left hanging open, and what seemed to be her soul drifted hauntingly through the orifice. She could buy... God knows how many sushi platters with that amount of money! If she had known this would happen, she would have rather just died of hunger in some gloomy corner of the school hallway.

“Umm... A-about payment for this...”

“Are you even able to?” said Keith, shrugging. “Someone who allows their stomach to growl so loudly and furthermore can’t even buy our designated uniform.”

“Besides, what’s with that lame outfit?” said Mary, referring to the commoner’s old jumper and trousers.

It dawned on Katarina too that there was absolutely no way for her to ever repay the price; she would have like to die solvent. A vision of savage loan sharks confiscating all her video games crossed her mind, which was sure to become reality if she did not grovel for forgiveness like an animal right there and then.

“I’m really sorry!” she yelped, bowing rigidly.

Nicol picked up a shard of the broken vase. “What should we do, Geordo?”

Said blonde boy quickly dragged over the nearest velvet chair he could find and sat down with a flourish, such that of presumptuous self-importance. Putting one leg over the other, he leaned his face onto a resting arm. In one brevity, he had morphed from a mischievous prince into a majestic king.

“Have you heard of this saying, Claes-kun?” He jabbed a finger into the air theatrically. “ _When in Rome, do as the Romans do. If you don’t have money, then work it off!_ ”

“Yes?” said Katarina, lifting her head. Tears were swirling in her eyes.

Geordo smiled sadistically. “Starting today, you are... the Host Club’s dog!”

And so, Katarina knew that her high school life was done for. She collapsed onto the floor, stomach growling.

**Author's Note:**

> Sirius Deek would be perfect as Nekozawa (president of the Black Magic Club) XD


End file.
